Educate us - recommend a classic!

[Jason]

We all have our guilty pleasures when it comes to gaming, but what about your 'hidden gems'? Those games that might not be so well-known as today's big-budget blockbusters, but have just as much playability. Perhaps it was once a classic, and has sadly slipped from the radar of today's gamers?

Whatever the reason, perform videogame necromancy here, and remind us all why our gaming libraries aren't complete without your game!

[Iggy]

The WildWest mod to Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a true classic. This is a total conversion that includes new maps, weapons, sounds, player models, and more. It features cowboys versus banditos in objective, and capture the flag modes.

It requires RTCW to work, but there is a standalone download out there that will work without having RTCW installed.

http://the-wildwest.co.uk

[Iggy]

Lots of classic games can be found at Good Old Games, mostly in the 5 to 10 dollar range.

http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/

[Jason]

I'll have to check out that Wild West mod - sounds like fun. What's server availability like?

[Iggy]

I think right now there is only 1 server, there may be as many as 3, but the Hang Em High server is in the US, East Coast, so your ping should not be too bad.

[Konrad]

I remember that mod, I played it a few times with the bulk of the community ie. developers.

However, we were playing mostly for luls, low gravity high impact type of thing.

My hidden oldie pleasure are the Jedi Knight Series, anything from Dark Forces II to Jedi Academy has gotten so much playtime out of me i'm almost ashamed to admit it.
Unfortunately, the latter in the series and the ones I play nowadays aren't really that old. Q3 era.

[Ziveeman]

Oregon Trail!

I have so much memories of playing this game in elementary and middle school. I've been trying to find a good replacement for this (or even just the game itself...) but I've failed in this regard :( If I could find it again I would be so happy.

[Konrad]

We used to have that game in our middle school computer lab! That thing was ridiculously hard.

[Jason]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OKOlKrlqL.jpg

[Iggy]

Oregon Trail is still out there on bit torrent sites, but I haven't seen it for sale anywhere.

[Jason]

Yeah, same here. I don't think I could bring myself to play it now - it wouldn't feel quite the same.

[Rogue]

Well of course I could recommend Tomb Raider 1-5 for playability. The games are really long, puzzling but very enjoyable to play. It can get frustrating when you are doing the puzzles or trying to work out which direction you should go in but I highly recommend them. :D

[Knighto]

Grim Fandango. It's a 1998 game which I only played last year. The setting: Latin-American vision of the after life with death insurance agencies. Characters: Dead people who are not zombies (yes, people can die and be something other than zombies, unlike what modern games had taught us.) Story: much better than most big buster movies now adays. Best sound track ever. Best voice acting ever. A great adventure puzzles games which is not played by the annoying mouse point-and-click style, you use the keyboard for this one.

I don't want to say anymore, just check it on wikipedia and youtube.

It's something that every human being (and not just gamers) in the world should experience.

[Jason]

I second this. I haven't played the game for about eight years (and even then I can't remember if I finished it), but I do remember it as one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played. Manny is just a genuinely likeable character, and the game is so well constructed, it's hard not to love it.

[Konrad]

Sanitarium

This is a vintage isometric point-and-click adventure game and by far one of the best I've played. The storyline, settings and music are absolutely incredible and it's just something anyone should experience. I remember when I was much younger a demo of this game was released in a gaming magazine, but I was too afraid to actually play it. Over ten years later, I found the game on Good old Games and I grabbed it immediately.

It's short... I beat it in two consecutive days but by god is it worth whatever they ask for it. GoG.com can sell it to you for $10, but since they don't put DRM on their games I'm perfectly willing to "loan" mine.

The only problem I've had with it is the voice acting. It flails wildly between good and bad and the main character leaves something to be desired. But that's only something that should bother you very early in the game.

[MyNameDidntFit]

I've always enjoyed a good point an' click. I'll try to catch you on Steam sometime tonight, Konnie.

Either that or we meet in the usual alley.

[CemeteryGates]

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis

It was released in 2001, so the graphics are completely outdated, but the gameplay is pure gold. It's a first-person (with a third-person option) tactical shooter and battlefield simulator.

There's dozens of guns and soldier types to choose from, plus lots of vehicles you can drive, fly and shoot. There's only four maps, but each is a huge island with lots of great spots for all kinds of stuff, with small cities, forests, airports, etc...
The sounds aren't that bad and the soundtrack is pretty awesome.

There's a campaign that's pretty fun, and each expansion pack (there's two) includes another one (the one for Resistance is ridiculously good); plus there's a handful of single-player missions.
There's also online multiplayer with up to 64 players and various modes (deathmatch, CTF, etc...).

But the best thing about this game is that you have a mission editor!
You can choose any of the four islands and place as many units as your PC can handle in any place of the map you want, and you can use complex triggers in a relatively easy manner (easier than any other game I've ever played), and do all sorts of things.
Seriously, I've done everything from recreating the D-Day to making stunt-driving and even zombie holocaust missions in that game!

Another pretty cool thing about it is that despite being ancient, it still has a somewhat large community making all sorts mods and addons for it. There's still several clans around too.


Here's some videos:


FFUR mod

^That guy's a terrible shot, but oh well...


First few Resistance cutscenes

^Those are the first three or four cutscenes of the Resistance campaign leaving out the first mission (which driving to your office and watching cutscenes).


Zombies!

^That's what a skilled mission-maker can achieve with the little help of a zombies mod. ;)

[Jason]

Heh, I still have this game somewhere. I loved this and still do - it was way ahead of its time.